Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
